The cost of living... what can we do?

I dont think its viable for us to all go electric because you would have to cover the whole country in windmills to make it possible, and that cant happen.
So keep the price of electric high because the truth is, we dont have enough.

 

Makes you wonder if we should have stuck to coal generation like most of the civilised world.

 

Fun fact. If you look up statistics for the number of deaths directly attributed to different kinds of electricity generation, coal massively outstrips all others put together. Including nuclear.

 

I presume it depends on how you calculate it but Nuclear is going to be one of the safest I would think just because it can be the most dangerous.

 

1 man has die on the hickey site last month

 

A construction worker in a traffic incident.
Not really anything to do with the daily running of power generation.

 

Then don't forget that big bang in over Russia's way

 

That killed a few hundred people. Probably shortened the lives of a few thousand more.

In the UK alone, Britain's biggest ever compensation claim was for former British Coal miners. I worked at the company that processed the cases. There were over half a million former miners in the database. Approx half of them had already died before their cases were even opened (their next of kin raised the claims). Of those still alive, almost all were in a seriously bad way, dying of emphysema and COPD from inhaling coal dust. These were just the actual miners, and only from state owned mines. Mines owned by private companies were not included (they might have been able to sue their prior employers, I don't know, I was only on the government contract). So half a million premature deaths, just for British Coal miners. Just in the UK, and only those who worked in an approx 20 year period between the 1950s and the late 1970s. It was ruled in court that before that time, people didn't know better, and after that time, PPE became compulsory.

Not included in that half a million was: those that worked in privately owned mines, those outside the UK, those that worked for British Coal outside of the period of liability, those that live near an open cast mine and breathe the dust but don't actually mine the coal, those that developed bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia or other destructive lung diseases from breathing the soot laden acid emissions from coal fired industry, or those that became ill just by living in a street where coal was the primary fuel for domestic heating, to name but a few.

Statistics on deaths attributed to the use of coal are truly horrendous.

 

It was the same with lots of industries years ago, coal was probably one of the worst but asbestos wasn't good along with other types of work.
It was avoidable if anyone had really cared, but that was how things were.

I've spent 50yrs breathing and eating wood dust, its not considered a good idea these days but you just get on with it, and hope for the best.

 

Lots of jobs were indeed dangerous, but the point with coal is it's not just those directly working in the coal industry that are affected. The effects are far reaching, affecting the air quality even for those that have never been anywhere near a lump of coal. I remember as a kid, walking down the street in winter, eyes stinging and throat burning, because coal dust reacts with moisture to produce sulphuric acid. Of course I didn't know that back then, but point is, coal is so nasty it's use is attributable to countless premature deaths, way more than all other energy sources we use today all put together. Yet even though this info is widely available to the public nowadays, people seem to feel safer with coal than other sources. People are terrified of nuclear, yet it's risks are barely significant compared to coal.

 

Coal is the only thing on the news and social media in our area at the moment. Still can't believe there is some in our area still think its brilliant and will help to reduce high energy costs, when its clearly coking coal for steel production.

I have not said anything on local social media as they will shoot me down. Even though the mine has been given the go ahead, I still think it will be challenged in court. Our area has always been Labour and the swing to Tories was down to Brexit, now the government need to be seen to be levelling up, hence why they have given the go ahead. If it is reversed in the courts, which I think will happen, the government will see themselves as blameless for trying to level up as it was taken out of their hands and I think they know that. I think it will be some while before any coking coal is extracted, this is just my opinion.

 

I dont think the government run the country these days, its the courts.
Seems everything just get dragged through them due to protests.
The courts in this country are a nightmare and mostly just make money for those professionals run the system.
I think their back log pretty much rivals the NHS due to the way they operate.

Pity the courts cant sort out protestors half the time and then maybe things might get moving.

 

This new mine has been 8 years in the making, it has been delayed numerous times. Why, I don't think they wanted to go ahead with it in the first place. They know they are toast at the next general election, which labour will probably then reverse the decision of the mine. So if it's not the courts, then it will be labour will stop it. If they were genuine on opening the mine, I think this announcement would of happened a lot sooner, just enough time now in power for it to drag on, then let someone else take the blame when it's reversed, party politics.